Three years ago, after they were of the World Club Championship, Liverpool's fan sites were visited by plenty of gloating Brazilians.
To the puzzlement of the normal users, one phrase kept popping up again and again - 'You don't have to be a giant to play football.'
It was a translation of what legendary match commentator had said on Brazil's TV Globo. The starting point for his phrase was little midfielder Mineiro - a recent Chelsea signing - who slipped behind the Liverpool defence to score the only goal of the game. But it also went further.
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This is perhaps not the perfect moment to speak well of Brazilian goalkeepers to an English audience - and it is for exactly that reason that I will attempt to mount a case for their defence. After all, when things are going well results speak for themselves and there is no need to cite mitigating circumstances.
It was hard not to feel sorry for at Tottenham last week. On his biggest opportunity to date he let one goal go in through his legs and, perhaps over-anxious to make amends, charged rashly out of his goal and gave another one away.
He was surely suffering from lack of playing time. Keepers need to be in rhythm in order to have a clear mind and sharp reflexes. Cavalieri, though, was signed to act as a back up. The same is not true of , a big-money recruit at Tottenham who seems to be throwing away a silly goal per game.
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, some compared them to the great , most compared them to and all agreed that a new power had emerged.
Five years later - but it soon proved to be a tale of one generation, which and . Peru were , and . But they have not been back to the World Cup since 1982, and barring a sporting miracle, . With 10 of the 18 qualifying rounds completed, Peru are bottom of the table.
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Dante - or it may have been from the Sopranos - is supposed to have said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crisis maintain their neutrality.
With that in mind, I felt the need to comment on the feedback from last week's blog, which was about taking over as coach of Argentina.
Many posts from English readers attacked Maradona as a cheat, which I think is an injustice. I don't recall a player being cheated against as much as Maradona.
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I cover South American football from Brazil. There's a wealth of talent and a rich culture - a fascinating continent to follow football.
